The facility can process 3,160 tons of waste a day and generate around 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough, according to the park, to meet the electricity needs of about 200,000 households.

　　

　　A technician remotely controls a rectangular grapple to grab waste via machine telemetry at the waste treatment plant at the Everbright Ecological Industrial Park in Xiong"an New Area on October 9, 2026. Photo: Hu Yuwei/GT

　　A factory beneath a park

　　For visitors, however, perhaps the first question is simpler: Where did the smell go?

　　Zhang Xing, general manager of Hebei Xiong"an Everbright Ecological Industrial Park Co Ltd, told the Global Times that the answer works somewhat like giving the waste bunker a "super vacuum cleaner." Fans constantly draw air from the bunker into the incinerators, where it is used to support combustion. This keeps air pressure inside the bunker lower than outside, creating negative pressure. Fresh air can flow inward, but foul air is prevented from escaping.

　　Garbage trucks are also isolated from the outside when they unload. They first enter a sealed transition chamber; only after the outer door closes can the inner door open. "So the odor cannot escape," Zhang explained.

　　Noise is controlled just as carefully. Most of the plant"s heavy machinery is located deep underground, where layers of earth and rock, along with the greenery above, act as natural sound barriers. Extra soundproof enclosures are installed around particularly noisy equipment, such as generators, to further reduce noise.